On Horseback At 85 — The Queen Is An All-Action Grandma!

How many 85-year-old grandmas can hop on a pony and take their grandchildren on an equestrian expedition?

But then Queen Elizabeth II isn’t just any family matriarch!

Just days before she faced the world at her grandsonPrince William‘s wedding, the octogenarian monarch slipped into something far more casual and trotted off for a woodland pony ride with her youngest grandchildren, Prince Edward‘s kids Lady Louise Windsor, 7, and3-year-old James, Viscount Severn.

Lady Louise was one of Kate Middleton‘s bridesmaids at Westminster Abbey, but she showed no sign of pre-wedding jitters, grinning at the camera next to her brother and gran as they trotted amongst the bluebells near the family’s Windsor Castle estate.

The Queen usually keeps her relationship with her eight grandchildren pretty private — so it’s great to see this doting grandma with her guard down!